Notes from a Self Quarantine

Seriously, it’s rained pretty much all day today. And typically that would be fine because I had to work today, so that means I’m inside all day working on my computer. My husband and I made sure to take a walk around the neighborhood when our work shifts were done and it is just SO cold! Like raw need-to-wear-gloves kind of weather, and its April 27! It feels like March weather out there and I am not liking it! Sure all the spring flowers look amazing and so does our lawn after all the rain, but it’s cold out there too and that’s just unacceptable for this time of year! I should not be wearing gloves on April 27 unless I lived in some place like Alaska or Antarctica, which I so do not. Grrrr…

But one good thing about today — my husband picked up materials from Home Depot today (cause he goes there every darn day, I am not making this up!) to make new raised beds for my vegetable garden! He’s going to make two 4 X 8 beds to replace my two 4 X 4 beds that bit the dust this past winter. And hopefully they will last more than two seasons!

So I will have two new beds, and I’ll use the other 4 X 4 from the original set of three for one more season (hoping that it doesn’t bust at the seams this summer!) and I have a smaller bed that’s still holding on because it’s obviously made out of better material than the other original three. If all goes well, there will be 4 raised beds to plant in this year! And two of them will be huge! I’m like a pioneer or something!

Now if it will only warm up and stop raining so I can get outside and plant…

Well actually, I am definitely not a Zoom expert. Today, the yoga studio I go to every Sunday in virus-free times offered a Zoom class for the 10 a.m. slot. Today’s teacher used to teach the 10 a.m. slot for years — I think I have taken more yoga classes with Elizabeth in the 7 years I have been doing yoga than anyone else. She gave up the Sunday 10 a.m. slot a few months ago and I have missed her class.

I was so excited to take her class this morning. But of course I didn’t properly prepare for this morning’s class — I tried to sign into Zoom just before 10 a.m. on my phone, while I was trying to register for the class on my iPad. The Zoom link didn’t work, maybe because I didn’t pre-register. I attempted a few times all while trying to not have a melt down ( I mean this was the ONE class I wanted to do today and it was live!). I finally figured out that I needed to download the Zoom app (geez, why is all this stuff never easy and when did I turn into my mother??).

I downloaded the app, and low and behold — there was my class! I was only a few minutes late, thank goodness — I rolled out my yoga mat and started the class. I did rememeber to turn off my camera, but I forgot to mute my microphone — sorry to anyone that heard me yell at my husband!

Tonight a couple friends decided to do a virtual happy hour through Zoom. Two folks ended up backing out, so the remaining two ladies ended up just Facetiming, which honestly is much more my speed. Zoom has so many extra things, it’s a tad overwhelming.

So now it’s Sunday night and my husband keeps calling me to come in to the kitchen to make our salads for dinner. My work is just never done!

Today was a beautiful day — it was almost 70 degrees and the sun was out all day. This kind of weather definitely puts me in a better mood!

I started working on my vegetable garden this week, which is ridiculously early for me. Typically, I am cleaning out all the leaves and twigs around Memorial Day and planting all my seeds the first weekend in June. But I am home every day now, so I can get started a little earlier!

This is what my garden looked like on Thursday:

• 

So many soggy leaves and little branches that fell from our huge oak trees — this photo does not do it justice. I spent an hour Thursday evening raking up all the leaves in the back of the garden — filled two garbage cans with yard waste.

Today I went back out for round two — this time I wanted to break down all the little branches that fell over the winter and rake up all the acorns. I filled another two garbage barrels with twigs, acorns and leaves.

Here was my end result:

• 

It definitely looks better! But two of my raised beds fell apart at the end of last season and it only got worse over the winter. Now I need to figure out how to make new ones. These I bought from Amazon two seasons ago and honestly, they were not the best quality. I just went with them because I wasn’t sure if the raised beds would work. They definitely make the gardening so much easier!

So this season I am hoping that my husband will help me build new raised beds. He goes to Home Depot all the time!! Why can’t we go get lumber for raised garden beds?? He’s not too excited about it, that’s for sure. But it does make the planting and weeding so much easier in the raised beds.

This is the earliest I have ever cleaned out the garden, this is a good thing! Maybe we will have veggies earlier this summer!

It has been such a strange week — I’ve had such trouble concentrating on work (didn’t finish my project today which annoys me so much), the weather has been crappy and I’ve had trouble sleeping.

But our friend who’s a contactor finished hanging up our 6 new wooden interior doors — they look amazing! And now that the doors aren’t laying on the floor of my home office, I now have extra space! Yay! But he won’t be coming back to our house next week, which is sad, my husband and I really enjoyed having someone else around. Even though we are supposed to be social distancing… Now it will just be the two of us next week, all week, and that can be a little scary.

And our house finch has not come back. I am still upset about that, and yes, I do realize that’s an irrational emotion. It’s been so cold this week, I don’t think those eggs will hatch and if they do hatch, who is going to feed them? Will I have to dig worms out of the front yard?? Can baby birds even eat worms?

We ordered messy burgers from our typical Friday night pub — we’re excited to walk up and grab them soom. It finally stopped raining, so it will be nice to get a little exercise before dinner.

Here’s to hoping next week will be a little bit better. I’ve been a tad annoyed staying home this week!

I had a real hard time concentrating today. Not sure why, but every single time I sat down at my computer to work on a project, my mind just instantly wandered away. Now I have been working on this project for most of the week — I really should be done by tomorrow morning. My boss hasn’t asked for it yet (oh, how embarrassing if he does!), but I really should get it to him by tomorrow. I mean, really, I am sitting at home, how could I possible not be getting this done?!? But I just keep getting distracted. And it’s not that I am distracted because I am watching TV, or reading a good back — I’m honestly just staring at my computer screen. And not working on my project. Sigh.

Is anyone else having this same problem? It’s been stressing me out today. I have other projects to work on, one’s that do interest me more, but I need to finish THIS project first. And maybe it’s because it just doesn’t interest me that much — could that be the reason why I am procrastinating?

And earlier this morning, I had the perfect opportunity to buckle down and work on it — my husband had to run out (of course he did! He went to the beer store to check if they had any good local beers. I wish I were kidding.). And our friend, who’s a contractor and has been hanging our 6 new wooden interior doors, had to run out. I was finally home alone, I could have banged that project out while they were gone! But no, it was too quiet in the house without those two, I couldn’t concentrate, so I got up and washed the dishes. Yes, my kitchen was then cleaned, but I wasn’t any closer to finishing my work project. You know, the thing that’s sending me a paycheck. Sigh.

So tomorrow is Friday, and I really need to get this darn thing done! How do I force myself to concentrate on it?? I really have a solid two hours of work to put into it, but that’s still two hours of work…when I feel like I have the attention span of a gnat. And why did I think that working from home would be so much fun??

The house finch was not back in her nest at all today. I think I am starting to have nightmares brought on by her absence. And yes, I do realize how irrational these feelings are and how weird it is that I quickly became attached to a bird. Don’t judge me.

My husband keeps joking that if she doesn’t come back soon, he’s going to toss the nest into the bushes. At least I think he’s joking…

So this evening after work, I brought my little step ladder outside onto our front steps. I was a couple inches too short to see into the nest from the top step, so I asked my husband to climb up there.

He snapped this photo:

• 

You guys — there are 5 eggs!!! My husband now says that he won’t toss the nest, thank goodness. But the bigger question — where did she go?? Why did she leave the eggs behind? Did she decide she just wasn’t ready to be a mother?? Do I have to go out there and watch the nest every night? I certainly can’t sit in it…

So now what happens? There has to a book out there I can consult. Or a house finch expert. Is she just watching from a distance? And now she’s pissed that we took photos of her nest.

Maybe I will just go wait in the window and see if there’s any movement from the eggs or if the mother bird comes back… Will anyone from work notice that I’m not checking e-mails as regularly? Or maybe my co-workers are all watching their own house finches…

A couple weeks ago, I wrote that we had a house finch and her man building a nest on top of our light just outside our front door.

• 

She’s been in her nest for a couple for weeks now, and we’ve been enjoying watching her do her thing during the day. The male house finch comes by in the morning with food, but she’s pretty much out there by herself all day and night unless someone goes in or out the front door and then she flies away in a huff.

I pretty much check on her first thing every morning. Well yesterday she was there in the morning, but she left just before noon, and she has NOT been back!! The nest is empty (well we can’t see inside it, so I don’t know if there are eggs in there). She didn’t come back once today. And yes, I have looked repeatedly.

Where is she? Did she abandon the nest? Were there never eggs? Did she get hurt? Did we piss her off by going in and out the front door??

I’m obviously rather concerned about her disappearance, but my husband didn’t think it warranted a 911 call. So I keep looking for her, hoping that she will return. Is it wrong to get attached to a wild bird? There’s just so much going on out in the world, I was happy to have her join our home community. And I am hoping that she will come back. I really wanted to see little baby birds right outside our front door.

I’m hopeful that she will return. And hope is important right now.

Here’s one plus of being stuck in the house with no place to go — we’re definitely cooking more interesting meals during the week! Yesterday, my husband made a brine and after it cooled, he stuck a whole chicken in the pot with the brine. It marinated for about 24 hours.

Now today is Monday, a day that we would normally be commuting to work, working a full day and commuting home. Monday is never a day we try experimental meals.

But this Monday:

• 

Here’s our chicken getting ready to go on the smoker! Yes, on this work-from-home Monday, we stuck a full-sized chicken on our outdoor smoker to smoke for a few hours. Just because we’re home and we can. It’s been stuffed with some lemon and garlic and some herbs from my indoor herb garden. I’m starting to feel like a darn pioneer lady!

We’ll see how it turns out – it smells pretty amazing. And there will be leftovers, which I always love. Look at how cool Mondays during a pandemic have become!

I’ve been really tired today, like didn’t sleep too well last night kind of tired. I’ve tried to power through the feeling — it was beautiful day today so I went for a run. It was definitely good to get outside and get some exercise. And added bonus — I got more Fitbit steps today than I have gotten all week! Yay! But then my Fitbit app stopped working…sigh. Sometimes I feel like technology is out to get me…

So now I am tired and annoyed and counting the hours until I can just head to bed…is this boredom?? Maybe. I have about 30 pages to left to read in my book — tonight would definitely be a good night to head to bed early and finish that book.

Happy Sunday!

Today is our 11th wedding anniversary. And how different today was from the actual day! And not just because we are all staying at home because of the coronavirus.

This is what we woke up to today:

• 

Yes, that’s snow. On April 18. In Massachusetts. And yes, we have had big April snowstorms here before, but I don’t remember one occurring after the first week of April. This year has just been so strange, makes me wonder if the locust swarms are next…

Anyway, back to our anniversary — yes, this was not the weather we had on that Saturday 11 years ago. Sure my husband-to-be was a little sad that the grass wasn’t greener that day for our outside photos and it was a little overcast, but it was not cold enough for snow. I had sandal-like heels on and didn’t even bother wearing the shawl I had made for my dress (I wonder where that shawl is now…)

I can’t imagine the drama that snow would have caused on our wedding day. Oh, how folks would have been so stressed in the days before the event! I’m sure we would have gotten several cancellations.

But we survived that day and the years since, so tonight to celebrate, in the middle of a pandemic, my husband has been smoking pork ribs on our outdoor smoker. He made his own rub last night, the ribs dry marinated in it for a good 12 hours, and they’ll be on the smoker for 6. I picked out a bottle of wine from one of my favorite wineries. It will be a nice quiet night with good food and drink, which is basically what we did 11 years ago, minus the quiet part. I couldn’t ask for anything else.